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I have an older house listed, circa 1940, 2770SF, 5/3, listing for $123,900. It is move-in ready but needs some work (which house doesn't). During a recent open house, the main comment I got was the very small kitchen.
I'm not real impressed with the imagination of buyers - or their agents for that matter. There is plenty of room to expand the kitchen although it would take a bit of effort and money but I don't think the buyers can picture it.
So I'm asking, would it be advisable to draw up a couple of possible modifications to fix the kitchen situation? I'm not an architect but am a civil engineer and have designed my share of things.
Part of me says 'yes' because without that, the potential buyers can't/won't see the potential and a 5 bedroom house needs a decent kitchen.
Part of me says 'no' because you really don't want to be pointing out negatives.
Here is a video tour - the kitchen is right at the 2:00 mark.
Yes create some floor plan options. That is an insanely small kitchen for the size of the house. It would not be a cheap remodel so you need a buyer that has vision and cash to do it.
Unless that's a discounted price to account for a major remodel, if I'm in the market for a 125K house, I'm not going to then be prepared to spend half again that much for the kind of structural changes that would be needed to make a functional kitchen.
And personally, I'm not willing to invest 5 minutes of video watching to decide if I'm interested in a house. I suggest you add more photos to your listing (which I looked up and there are only 10 photos, half of which are exterior shots). I would most likely skip over your house assuming that it was in bad shape and needed more work than I wanted to put in. A listing should have photos of the kitchen, all bathrooms and all bedrooms or people will assume there are problems.
So the reality is that I'd be unlikely to even be in your house to look at any plans you had drawn up. But even if I were, unless you are discounting the price to account for the reno, I'm not paying market value for a house that needs 10s of thousands of work. And at least for me, that would not count as a move in ready kitchen. I didn't make it through the video to see if the bathrooms need work as well.
I love your house! The kitchen is tiny but that is not your problem. I wouldn't include plans to make it larger nor would I offer a reduction for the next owners to make it larger.
Don't know how to say this without sounding rude but that video was horrible! I had to fast forward through most of it. It didn't even show all of the inside of your house. Get rid of it and put photos up instead.
what are similar homes (old historic, in downtown) in Wilson selling for? What does that $ get them in a newer house somewhere else?
WHy are there seemingly so many houses for sale in a 4-square bock area of downtown?
That house in that location in very good condition should bring around $180k or a bit more. The kitchen is small and a buyer would eventually want to upgrade the baths but there isn't anything keeping someone from moving in tomorrow. At that price in a newer house, you can get something pretty decent. I think there is a certain attraction in the historic homes - if that is your 'thing'.
The historic district is in a bit of an upswing and I think a lot of the older owners are looking at taking advantage of this. Old homes are definitely more work.
Or, more diplomatically, tell them the kitchen size is already well reflected in the price. It isn't the discovery of termites in the basement.
Exactly, kitchen remodels aren't cheap at all and you probably won't come out ahead in the long run. If someone wants a bigger kitchen, they can buy the house at a good price and then remodel it any way they like or find a house with a bigger kitchen and pay more money for the house. Don't put yourself into the headache and expense of a kitchen remodel.
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